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The Staffordshire Schools Junior Boys, which included three Cannock & Stafford athletes, finished in first place for the first time for over forty years at the English Schools Cross Country Championships in West Sussex on Saturday (15th).
Brandan Smart (32nd), Charlie Cresswell (33rd) and Finlay Stanton (71st) were all members of the winning team.
Ben Allen was the highest finishing C&S runner, coming home in 16th position in an Inter Boys race of 327 finishers. Jack Hadley came 51st and Zach Bent 296th in the same race.
In the Junior Girls race, Beth Beeson finished 304th and Katherine Grainger 317th.
Congratulations to all of the C&S athletes on their selection and performances!
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Craig Carr won two gold medals at the BMAF Indoor Championships at Lee Valley at the weekend. On Saturday, Craig finished second in the M45 200m in 24.60 but, as the winner was an Irish guest athlete, Craig won his first gold. On Sunday Craig ran a PB of 7.72 to finish second in a 60m heat. This proved a nice warm up for his 400m race where he smashed his PB by over a second to move to number one in the British Rankings for his age group with a time of 53.53.
Over in Ireland, John Kirby competed in the Irish Senior Championships. In his 400m heat, John ran a season's best of 50.50 to finish second and automatically qualify for the semi-final. Later the same day, John came 5th in his semi-final in 51.03.
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Cannock & Stafford AC had two athletes competing at the National Cross Country Championships at Parliament Hill, London.
Finlay Stanton finished an excellent 17th out of 318 competitors in the U13B and Bill Chesters 261st out of 1783 who completed the Senior Men's race.
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Cannock & Stafford had two athletes representing their universities at the BUCS Indoor Championships at Sheffield last weekend.
In the 3000m, Katie Burney ran 10:51.27 to finish 11th in her heat representing Sheffield Hallam.
In the 200m, Matilda Perry, representing Cardiff Met, won her heat in 25.61 before improving her time to 25.49 to finish 4th in the semi-final. Tilly also took part in the long jump, qualifying from her pool with 5.50m and then jumping 5.24m in the final, which was unfortunately timetabled straight after her 200m semi-final.
In the penultimate event of the meeting, Tilly won a gold medal as part of the Cardiff Met 4x200m relay team that won the race in 1:40.59.
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Craig Carr, representing Midland Masters and Andy Weetman, representing Welsh Masters, both competed at the England Masters Inter Area Challenge at Lee Valley on Sunday.
Craig was selected to run in the M35 200m race and recorded a PB of 24.27 to finish third and break his own club record in the process. Andy ran in both the 60m (8.62) and the 200m, where he finished 6th overall with 29.25.
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Congratulations to our Senior Men who gained promotion to Division 1 of the Birmingham & District Cross Country League at Aldersley Stadium on Saturday (8th).
Tom Eustace was the first C&S athlete to complete the course, finishing 6th. Bill Chesters and Ryan Ashforth also finished in the top ten, in 8th and 10th respectively. James Russell came 46th, Jordan Barrett 50th and Phil Wolfe was the last of the 'A' team scorers in 62nd.
They were well supported by Dan Gambrill (105th), Darrell Wilde (113th), Sam Cartlidge (115th), Craig Pearson (123rd), Danny Leighton (146th) and Tom Orton (159th) as the team finished second on the day and second overall in the league.
On Sunday, in the WMYACCL meeting at Nuneaton, Finlay Stanton finished the season in a fantastic third place overall after coming second in his U13B race.
In the U17M, Jack Hadley came home fourth to finish the season in eighth place overall. Brandan Smart came 10th in the U15B, and Henry Orton 27th in the U13B.
Katherine Grainger finished 27th and Inara Webster 36th in the U15G and Phoebe Segrove 66th in the U13G.
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The National Age Group Championships were held at EIS, Sheffield at the weekend and there was plenty of Cannock & Stafford interest.
On Saturday, Sophie Hulse was our first athlete to compete and she came 4th in her U17W 60m heat in 7.99. Joyella Jeffries ran 40.90 to finish 4th in her 300m heat to qualify for the semi-final where she ran 40.86, finishing fourth, missing a place in the final by less than a tenth of a second.
Callum Pearson booked his spot in the U17M 800m final by finishing second with his second ever fastest time of 1:58.81 and Georgia Griffiths ran a season's best of 2:16.97 to finish third in her U17W 800m heat.
The U20W long jump took place at 5pm on Day 1 and Matilda Perry jumped a pb of 5.69m to finish 6th in the competition.
On Day 2 of the event, four of our athletes ran in the 200m. Sophie Hulse came second in her heat with a 25.51 run to qualify for the semi-final where she came 5th in 26.89. Thomas Stephens came 4th in his heat with 24.11.
Matilda Perry qualified in second place from her U20W heat with 25.53 and later ran 25.52 to finish third in her semi whilst Mia Wainwright came 3rd in her heat with 26.40.
In the U17M 800m final, Callum Pearson had another sub 2 minute run, finishing fourth in 1:59.0
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Finlay Stanton won silver in the U13B race at the Midland Cross Country Championships on Saturday (25th) as seven C&S athletes competed at the event.
Our other competitor in the U13B, Henry Orton came 20th whilst in the U15B, Brandan Smart came 14th and Charlie Cresswell 21st.
Jack Hadley finished 10th and Luke Cresswell 48th in the U17M race and Beth Beeson came 34th in the U15G.
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Our presentation evening took place at Stafford Rangers FC on 11 January.
During the evening, acknowledgement was given to the following, with apologies for any achievements that may have been missed.
We had a large number of medal winners at County and Area Championships last season – too many to mention individually but congratulations to everyone who won a medal in those events.
Cross Country
Our Senior Men are currently having a really good season, winning promotion to Division 1 of the NSCCL and looking good to gain promotion to Division 1 of the Birmingham & District League.
Also in the North Staffs League, Finlay Stanton won individual gold in the U13 age group, Jack Hadley silver in the U17, Bill Chesters finished 3rd in the Senior category and Dan Gambrill 3rd in the M35.
Six of our athletes represented Staffordshire at the English Schools Cross Country Championships, Ben Allen, Jack Hadley, Brandan Smart, Charlie Cresswell, Georgia Griffiths and Beth Beeson.
Nina Skilton and Malcolm Eustace were selected to represent England in the British & Irish Masters Cross Country International although Malcolm had to withdraw due to injury. Sue Kneill-Boxley was selected as a reserve and raced at the meeting.
Malcolm and Christine Kilkenny both won medals at the British Masters Cross Country Championships.
Track and Field
In track and field, this year, we had nine athletes who represented Staffordshire at the English Schools Track & Field Championships which is the most we’ve had for a few years:- Tilly Perry, Mia Wainwright, Georgia Griffiths, Sophie Hulse, Joyella Jeffries, Callum Pearson, Ben Allen, Jack Hadley and Thomas Stephens. Two of those athletes won medals, Georgia in the steeplechase and Callum in the 800m. For finishing in the top two, Georgia got to represent English Schools in a Schools International meeting.
Callum also won a bronze medal in the National Indoor Champs in the 800 and Georgia won a silver in the National outdoor champs in the steeplechase
Six club records were achieved in the younger age groups this year. Finlay Stanton broke long standing records in the U13B 800 and 1500m as well as running a club best time in the relatively new 1200m event. Callum Pearson broke the U15B 800m record, Georgia Griffiths the U17 1500m steeplechase record and Joyella Jeffries equalled the U17W 400m record.
Our veteran athletes also achieved a large amount of club records during the season. There are too many to mention individually but at least 35 were broken in track and field as well as a large number on the roads. Of those 35, Malcolm Eustace broke 6, Darrell Wilde 4 and Craig Carr 4, which included breaking the M40 400m record just before he turned 45. It also included John Kirby who broke the Irish Masters 200m record by running 22.42
Malcolm Down, Malcolm Eustace, Darrell Wilde, John Kirby, Sue Kneill-Boxley and Keri Lees all won medals at British Masters Championships.
Prior to presenting the awards to the athletes, our Chairman, Shaun Ainge, thanked the following.
The c oaches were thanked for their commitment. All of our coaches are volunteers and don’t get paid for coaching their athletes. Shaun commented that their payment is the gratitude that they receive from the athletes and parents. The importance of thanking the coaches at the end of the sessions was stressed and that any cards or gifts received at Christmas are so appreciated.
He then thanked our officials that officiate at the club’s meetings. Cheryl, Mandy, Gary and Rob have all qualified in the last year which has helped a lot but we could always do with more volunteers to get qualified.
Thanks was also given to all of our Committee, team managers and other volunteers.
Thanks again to Sandi Thompson and Allee Rigby who organised the evening.
The following awards were then presented:
Men's Veteran's League Winners Trophy - Collected by Rob LawWomen's Veteran's League Winners Trophy - Collected by Heather Bates Veterans Male Athlete of the Year - Craig Carr Young Athletes Lower Age Group, Leading Male Point Scorer - Xin FuYoung Athletes Lower Age Group, Leading Female Point Scorer - Larna Watkins Young Athletes Upper Age Group, Leading Male Point Scorer - Jack Hadley Young Athletes Upper Age Group, Leading Female Point Scorer - Matilda PerrySenior League, Leading Male Point Scorer - Allee Rigby Senior League, Leading Female Point Scorer - Mia Wainwright
England Athletics PB Award Certificates were also presented to all U17 athletes who had achieved them during the season. Others who had represented the Club were awarded medals.
Presidents Cup – This trophy was introduced by our past President, Derek Fellows, and is awarded to a person, or persons, who the President feels has provided great service to the club over the past 12 months.
Bob Hughes, presented the trophy to Martin Roberts.
David Sunderland Memorial Award Dave Sunderland was coach to a number of international athletes and was also a great supporter of schools athletics as well as being a coach at the club. When he died in 2014 we were given a trophy to present each year in his memory.
This year, the award was shared. As athletes who both compete over middle distance and won medals at English Schools, the winners were Georgia Griffiths and Callum Pearson.
Most Improved Young Athlete of the Year – This award is voted for by the club’s coaches and is presented to the athlete who, in the coaches’ opinion, has improved the most over the year. Sixteen coaches voted and the winner was Thomas Stephens.
Tom improved his 100m pb from 12.6 last year to 11.2 which ranked him as the quickest 100m runner in the club. He also improved his 200m from 25.3 to 23.43.
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On Saturday (11th), our Senior Men came 6th on the day in the Birmingham & District Cross Country League at Worcester.
The result leaves them second in Division 2 and in a good position to gain promotion with only one meeting of the season left.
Tom Eustace came 4th in the race with Bill Chesters a place behind. Tom is currently 3rd overall and in with a chance of individual honours and Bill is 5th overall. Phil Wolfe came 40th, James Russell 53rd, Jon Biddle 67th and James McCann in 102nd rounded off our A team scorers.
Craig Pearson finished 112th, Tom Orton 131st, Scott Rabin 143rd, Jamie Graham 149th, Danny Leighton 150th and Mark Green 182nd.
In the WMYACCL at Aldersley on Sunday, Finlay Stanton came 3rd in the U13B race. Ben Allen had a great race to finish 2nd in the U17M and Jack Hadley came 10th in the same race. Brandan Smart was another top 10 finisher, coming home 9th in the U15B race.
Katherine Grainger came 36th and Isla Unitt 54th in the U15G race and in the U13G race, Phoebe Segrove came 61st and Poppy Briscoe 77th. Elodie Pilsbury was our only competitor in the U17W race, finishing 43rd.
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The County Cross Country Championships, due to take place tomorrow at Park Hall Country Club, have been cancelled. The decision was made because of the adverse weather forecast and that the long road up to the course may be in a dangerous condition.
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